Crowdsourcing development of mobile applications for promoting the
public good in Kenya.

In their words:
"Apps 4 Africa challenges local technologists to develop tools on a
variety of platforms that build on the needs of citizens or on open
data sets relevant to the East Africa region.
The contest runs July 1st- August 31st. Winners will receive a small
bit of fame and fortune — cash, gadgets, chances to improve your
technical skills and the opportunity to hob nob with our judges panel
of tech luminaries and civil society leaders at an awards ceremony in
September."

It seems so obvious and simple — Emergency Room Wait Times by cell
phone and mobile app. Why don’t all the hospitals do this? Oh, right,
because most of them can’t say they have a 9 minute wait, or even a
half hour wait.

In their words:
"Visit this page in iTunes to get the FREE DMC ER Wait time app on
your iPhone or iTouch,a nd you’ll always have the most current
information on DMC ER wait times at your fingertips, as well as a
specail mapping function to show you how to get to the DMC from any
location."
"You can text "ER" to 42660 to get the current ER wait times by a
quick reply text."

Crowdsourcing again, but mobile this time means by foot, not by phone.
This time they are having real folk wander around the oil spill area
with balloons, kites, and similar low-cost items and report back data
about the severity and spread of the BP Gulf Coast oil spill. They
have tip sheets on how to set up your own aerial photo shoot, even
with a camera phone! The idea is that this may be a model for crisis
response in the future. This all gets piped into spreadsheets, a
backend data collection, and ultimately to a Google Maps overlay.

In their words:
"We’re not trying to duplicate the satellite imagery or the flyover
data (though we’re helping to coordinate some of the flyovers and
trying to make sure the data is publicly accessible). We believe it’s
possible for citizens to use balloons, kites, and other simple and
inexpensive tools to produce their own documentation of the spill… and
that such imagery will be essential for environmental and legal
reasons in coming years."

Today at the A2B3 lunch, I think it was Steve who was passing around a
Nanonote and joking about carrying a portable Linux box in his pocket.
This is such a totally geek thing to do that the table was riveted. He
passed it around, and I actually held it in my hands and cringed at
some of the non-linux commands folks had entered while it was
wandering. I don’t know enough Linux to make good use of it, but I
know enough to want one anyway. The very idea of a code
development box that is about the size of the early iPods is …
seductive in its own way.

In their words:
"The ? version of NanoNote is an ultra small form factor computing
device. The device sports a 336 MHz processor, 2GB of flash memory,
microSD slot, head phone jack, USB device and 850mAh Li-ion battery.
It boots Linux out of the box and also boots over USB. It’s targeted
squarely at developers who see the promise of open hardware and want
to roll their own end user experience. It’s the perfect companion for
open content; we envision developers turning the device into a music
or video player for Ogg or an offline Wikipedia or MIT OpenCourseWare
appliance. Or you can simply amaze your friends by creating an ultra
small handheld notebook computer. You choose the distribution. The ?
Nanonote is the first in a line of products that will see the addition
of other hardware capabilities. Get your NanoNote and start a
Nanoproject today. Or join one of the existing projects in our
developer community"

Crowdsourcing development of mobile applications for promoting the
public good in Kenya.

In their words:
"Apps 4 Africa challenges local technologists to develop tools on a
variety of platforms that build on the needs of citizens or on open
data sets relevant to the East Africa region.
The contest runs July 1st- August 31st. Winners will receive a small
bit of fame and fortune — cash, gadgets, chances to improve your
technical skills and the opportunity to hob nob with our judges panel
of tech luminaries and civil society leaders at an awards ceremony in
September."

It seems so obvious and simple — Emergency Room Wait Times by cell
phone and mobile app. Why don’t all the hospitals do this? Oh, right,
because most of them can’t say they have a 9 minute wait, or even a
half hour wait.

In their words:
"Visit this page in iTunes to get the FREE DMC ER Wait time app on
your iPhone or iTouch,a nd you’ll always have the most current
information on DMC ER wait times at your fingertips, as well as a
specail mapping function to show you how to get to the DMC from any
location."
"You can text "ER" to 42660 to get the current ER wait times by a
quick reply text."

Crowdsourcing again, but mobile this time means by foot, not by phone.
This time they are having real folk wander around the oil spill area
with balloons, kites, and similar low-cost items and report back data
about the severity and spread of the BP Gulf Coast oil spill. They
have tip sheets on how to set up your own aerial photo shoot, even
with a camera phone! The idea is that this may be a model for crisis
response in the future. This all gets piped into spreadsheets, a
backend data collection, and ultimately to a Google Maps overlay.

In their words:
"We’re not trying to duplicate the satellite imagery or the flyover
data (though we’re helping to coordinate some of the flyovers and
trying to make sure the data is publicly accessible). We believe it’s
possible for citizens to use balloons, kites, and other simple and
inexpensive tools to produce their own documentation of the spill… and
that such imagery will be essential for environmental and legal
reasons in coming years."

Today at the A2B3 lunch, I think it was Steve who was passing around a
Nanonote and joking about carrying a portable Linux box in his pocket.
This is such a totally geek thing to do that the table was riveted. He
passed it around, and I actually held it in my hands and cringed at
some of the non-linux commands folks had entered while it was
wandering. I don’t know enough Linux to make good use of it, but I
know enough to want one anyway. The very idea of a code
development box that is about the size of the early iPods is …
seductive in its own way.

In their words:
"The ? version of NanoNote is an ultra small form factor computing
device. The device sports a 336 MHz processor, 2GB of flash memory,
microSD slot, head phone jack, USB device and 850mAh Li-ion battery.
It boots Linux out of the box and also boots over USB. It’s targeted
squarely at developers who see the promise of open hardware and want
to roll their own end user experience. It’s the perfect companion for
open content; we envision developers turning the device into a music
or video player for Ogg or an offline Wikipedia or MIT OpenCourseWare
appliance. Or you can simply amaze your friends by creating an ultra
small handheld notebook computer. You choose the distribution. The ?
Nanonote is the first in a line of products that will see the addition
of other hardware capabilities. Get your NanoNote and start a
Nanoproject today. Or join one of the existing projects in our
developer community"

Crowdsourcing development of mobile applications for promoting the
public good in Kenya.

In their words:
"Apps 4 Africa challenges local technologists to develop tools on a
variety of platforms that build on the needs of citizens or on open
data sets relevant to the East Africa region.
The contest runs July 1st- August 31st. Winners will receive a small
bit of fame and fortune — cash, gadgets, chances to improve your
technical skills and the opportunity to hob nob with our judges panel
of tech luminaries and civil society leaders at an awards ceremony in
September."

It seems so obvious and simple — Emergency Room Wait Times by cell
phone and mobile app. Why don’t all the hospitals do this? Oh, right,
because most of them can’t say they have a 9 minute wait, or even a
half hour wait.

In their words:
"Visit this page in iTunes to get the FREE DMC ER Wait time app on
your iPhone or iTouch,a nd you’ll always have the most current
information on DMC ER wait times at your fingertips, as well as a
specail mapping function to show you how to get to the DMC from any
location."
"You can text "ER" to 42660 to get the current ER wait times by a
quick reply text."

Crowdsourcing again, but mobile this time means by foot, not by phone.
This time they are having real folk wander around the oil spill area
with balloons, kites, and similar low-cost items and report back data
about the severity and spread of the BP Gulf Coast oil spill. They
have tip sheets on how to set up your own aerial photo shoot, even
with a camera phone! The idea is that this may be a model for crisis
response in the future. This all gets piped into spreadsheets, a
backend data collection, and ultimately to a Google Maps overlay.

In their words:
"We’re not trying to duplicate the satellite imagery or the flyover
data (though we’re helping to coordinate some of the flyovers and
trying to make sure the data is publicly accessible). We believe it’s
possible for citizens to use balloons, kites, and other simple and
inexpensive tools to produce their own documentation of the spill… and
that such imagery will be essential for environmental and legal
reasons in coming years."

Today at the A2B3 lunch, I think it was Steve who was passing around a
Nanonote and joking about carrying a portable Linux box in his pocket.
This is such a totally geek thing to do that the table was riveted. He
passed it around, and I actually held it in my hands and cringed at
some of the non-linux commands folks had entered while it was
wandering. I don’t know enough Linux to make good use of it, but I
know enough to want one anyway. The very idea of a code
development box that is about the size of the early iPods is …
seductive in its own way.

In their words:
"The ? version of NanoNote is an ultra small form factor computing
device. The device sports a 336 MHz processor, 2GB of flash memory,
microSD slot, head phone jack, USB device and 850mAh Li-ion battery.
It boots Linux out of the box and also boots over USB. It’s targeted
squarely at developers who see the promise of open hardware and want
to roll their own end user experience. It’s the perfect companion for
open content; we envision developers turning the device into a music
or video player for Ogg or an offline Wikipedia or MIT OpenCourseWare
appliance. Or you can simply amaze your friends by creating an ultra
small handheld notebook computer. You choose the distribution. The ?
Nanonote is the first in a line of products that will see the addition
of other hardware capabilities. Get your NanoNote and start a
Nanoproject today. Or join one of the existing projects in our
developer community"

Crowdsourcing development of mobile applications for promoting the
public good in Kenya.

In their words:
"Apps 4 Africa challenges local technologists to develop tools on a
variety of platforms that build on the needs of citizens or on open
data sets relevant to the East Africa region.
The contest runs July 1st- August 31st. Winners will receive a small
bit of fame and fortune — cash, gadgets, chances to improve your
technical skills and the opportunity to hob nob with our judges panel
of tech luminaries and civil society leaders at an awards ceremony in
September."

It seems so obvious and simple — Emergency Room Wait Times by cell
phone and mobile app. Why don’t all the hospitals do this? Oh, right,
because most of them can’t say they have a 9 minute wait, or even a
half hour wait.

In their words:
"Visit this page in iTunes to get the FREE DMC ER Wait time app on
your iPhone or iTouch,a nd you’ll always have the most current
information on DMC ER wait times at your fingertips, as well as a
specail mapping function to show you how to get to the DMC from any
location."
"You can text "ER" to 42660 to get the current ER wait times by a
quick reply text."

Crowdsourcing again, but mobile this time means by foot, not by phone.
This time they are having real folk wander around the oil spill area
with balloons, kites, and similar low-cost items and report back data
about the severity and spread of the BP Gulf Coast oil spill. They
have tip sheets on how to set up your own aerial photo shoot, even
with a camera phone! The idea is that this may be a model for crisis
response in the future. This all gets piped into spreadsheets, a
backend data collection, and ultimately to a Google Maps overlay.

In their words:
"We’re not trying to duplicate the satellite imagery or the flyover
data (though we’re helping to coordinate some of the flyovers and
trying to make sure the data is publicly accessible). We believe it’s
possible for citizens to use balloons, kites, and other simple and
inexpensive tools to produce their own documentation of the spill… and
that such imagery will be essential for environmental and legal
reasons in coming years."

Today at the A2B3 lunch, I think it was Steve who was passing around a
Nanonote and joking about carrying a portable Linux box in his pocket.
This is such a totally geek thing to do that the table was riveted. He
passed it around, and I actually held it in my hands and cringed at
some of the non-linux commands folks had entered while it was
wandering. I don’t know enough Linux to make good use of it, but I
know enough to want one anyway. The very idea of a code
development box that is about the size of the early iPods is …
seductive in its own way.

In their words:
"The ? version of NanoNote is an ultra small form factor computing
device. The device sports a 336 MHz processor, 2GB of flash memory,
microSD slot, head phone jack, USB device and 850mAh Li-ion battery.
It boots Linux out of the box and also boots over USB. It’s targeted
squarely at developers who see the promise of open hardware and want
to roll their own end user experience. It’s the perfect companion for
open content; we envision developers turning the device into a music
or video player for Ogg or an offline Wikipedia or MIT OpenCourseWare
appliance. Or you can simply amaze your friends by creating an ultra
small handheld notebook computer. You choose the distribution. The ?
Nanonote is the first in a line of products that will see the addition
of other hardware capabilities. Get your NanoNote and start a
Nanoproject today. Or join one of the existing projects in our
developer community"

Image by Boogies with Fishwww.messersmith.name/wordpress/2010/03/30/red-and-black/
Just when you think that everything is under control, a Pandora’s Box of silly irritations is opened somewhere above your head and all of Pandora’s little trinkets rain down on you like a plague of leaches. Hey, if I can’t start with a mixed metaphor, the I’m not going to write today. Hey, Pandora’s Box could contain a plague of leaches.

Negatives: alternator on the car is stoned again, doesn’t alternate nor charge the battery; rebuilt the home office computer and installed Windows 7 (that’s good), but none of the USB ports on the brand-new mother board work (that’s bad); satellite TV is still out despite replacing the cable and the decoder, have to order another LNB (if Eunie doesn’t have TV over the long Easter weekend, my life quality is going to be considerably degraded); new wireless connection from my office to my house has been placed in an unfortunate place – now power on weekends if the town power is out (which it usually is).

However, there are Positives: the boat motor is not creamed, as I suspected – only a fuse; I don’t have cancer, as far as I know.

One thing that works for me, though it’s not very nice, is to compare my problems to those of others. Alanis Morissette’s song Hand in My Pocket is playing in the background as I write this. It seems strangely appropriate. Here’s this morning ‘s sunrise at Coconut Point:I made is all moody and contrasty. Like this:I’m broke but I’m happy, I’m poor but I’m kind
I’m short but I’m healthy, yeah
I’m high but I’m grounded,
I’m sane but I’m overwhelmed
I’m lost but I’m hopeful, baby
What it all comes down to
Is that everything’s gonna be fine, fine, fine
‘Cause I’ve got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving a high five
I’ve never been a great interpreter of song lyrics, but I’ve always liked this one for its ambiguity. It seems to be saying to me that there are two sides to everything. One hand is in the pocket and the other one is doing something else. They don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other. Bad fortune doesn’t mean you’re in for a lucky streak soon. When things are going great, you don’t have to look over your shoulder. Life has a wonderful randomness to it. I can dig it.

What seems tragic, or at least annoying to me, by another’s standards will certainly seem trivial. I’m such a whiner. Excuse me all to pieces.

Let’s get to some fishy stuff. This magnificently gaudy critter is a Red and Black Anemonefish (Amphiprion melanopus):Somebody had a full palette when painting this one. I got these shots down deep in the big sandy bowl at The Eel Garden. This patch of anemones and these fish were there when I started diving in the early 80′s. I’ve been photographing them for nearly that long. They know me. I’m the guy who comes around and flashes bright lights in their eyes.

The occasionally entertain me with synchronised swimming:Synchronized Swimming . . . I’ve watched it many times on the telly. I can’t decide if it’s extremely interesting or extremely boring. I just sort of sit there and stare it and think, "What the . . ."

The little one in the image above is giving me a problem. I’m not sure what species is it. It’s definitely a juvenile, which makes identification more difficult. It is also unusual to find two different species of anemonefish inhabiting the same anemone. Here’s another shot of the little one head-on:The house is a Bulb Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor), certainly one of the most beautiful. The fish is a little blurred, because it was out of the focal plane. In this case it doesn’t seem to hurt the image.

Here’s another reef panorama:It’s a technique that is still a work in progress. Getting the colours right is a pain.

I can’t stop taking pictures of Palm Coral. It’s some species of Clavularia:The colours from group to group vary in wonderfully subtle ways.

I never pass up the opportunity to disrupt the life of a Hermit Crab (Calcinus minutus) by gently tipping its house over and watching it put things right:Now that I consider what I just wrote in that last sentence, the hair on the back of my neck is rising.

Image by stu_spivack
I bought a battery charger so that I wouldn’t have to worry about my cell phone battery dying. It’s huge overkill for just a cell phone but it will also rescue my netbook and camera. Of course, it means that I basically pack the standard charge and then the separate connectors for each gadget that I packed.

Wrist Computer Concept Question

Image by Brick Farmer
Those of you who have read Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy will know what I mean when I say wristpad.
For those who don’t, a wristpad is a wrist-worn computer formfactor.
This design consists fo a combination flexible touchscreen/battery (each exist), and a small control module containing the processors, a battery, a small camera, a laser pointer, and a few white LEDs. The display would wrap around most of the wrist, clasping on the side farthest from the control module. The computer would be ambidextrous, displaying the watch on one side fo the wrist, and other information on the other. The processor would not have to be very powerful, because only a few applications could run on such a limited screen resolution. It could, however, be used as a music player, supporting mp3, wav, aac, ogg, wma, and flac. Audible, too, probably. The device could aso serve as a bluetooth extension to a phone, or mabye have a phonen built in. Either way, it could use a cellular connection to grab and display information like stocks, weather, launch time, maybe RSS. Full-page web browsing is a definite nogo. Leave that to your lectern.
Input would be through the touchscreen and mabye the bezels around the ends of the control package. Also probably a button at the non-camera/light end of the control module, but that might be where the earbuds enter.
Hmm. Designing Human Interface Devices is hard.

What should I add to it?

Screen mock-ups to come.

Plugs and computer

Image by fixedgear
Red bar-end plugs and Cateye Kosmos. I replaced the battery and re-set the computer for the new year.